Joseph Parker vs Fabio Wardley winner to face Oleksandr Usyk next

We know one thing for absolute certain. Wardley isn't elite.

 

You are spectacularly and obviously incorrect.

 

Warren is just trying selling the fights.
They're good fights anyway.

It's a shame, we don't actually know if Usyk will fight either of them. He is entitled to retire anyway. It's a shame Usyk is actually a great fighter but he's been wasting the last few years a bit, on the rematches. Not his fault entirely. The rematch swindle needs to be ended. A whole generation of heavyweight contenders are lagging behind. The heavyweight championship (or championships) are at a point where one old guy will be passing to another old guy, contenders left on the shelf to 'age out' or young ones (Itauma) being rushed in before they've earned it.

 

Yeah exactly, I think there is a decent chance that Usyk will still drop the belt even after the 90 day extension. But also he is a fighter and loves the game so he will probably get that hunger and that itch to fight again, especially when he sees guys like Parker, Wardley, Itauma etc all fighting.

 

I want Parker to get his shot, but I am a bit tired of this rubbish. Did Dempsey not get a rematch against Tunny? Did Walcott, Charles and LaStarza not get them against Marciano? Did Patterson not get one against Liston? Did Ali not get rematches when he lost to Frazier and Norton?

And on and on.

Usyk has done nothing wrong to date. That will change if he doesn't fight the winner of Parker-Wardley next. And yes, I also find it a bit odd that he can't negotiate with an injury, but his position is that he just had a fight and deserves time off.

He's not wrong. Those crying "mandatory" don't seem to get that there are four governing bodies he has to answer to. There is only one world, and he shouldn't have four mandatories. He should actually have a right to demand that some of his mandatories fight each other to determine a true mandatory.

But yes, I love Joe, I think he deserves it, and, if he beats Wardley like he should, Usyk needs to fight him March-April.

 

I'm not against rematches. I'm against contracted ('next fight') rematches or contracted two-fight series, (which is effectively what Fury-Usyk was). You can call it "rubbish" to object to them, but throughout history, including at least one or two of cases which you highlight, people have expressed the same view i'm expressing.

Dempsey did get a rematch with Tunney .... But he beat Sharkey in an eliminator first. That's exactly how it should be.
Walcott did get a rematch with Marciano ... and it wasn't right. He also got paid more than Marciano. The whole thing stank.
Patterson's rematch with Liston was exactly the kind of thing we don't need.
Ali did not get a rematch with Frazier for the title. He actually got on and beat contenders and earned it, but Frazier was slow to agree and ended up fighting Foreman and losing.

Boxers who lose their titles should get back in line, and come back from the loss with a win against another top contender. Unless the rematch is going to be made quickly for 2 or 3 months later (which is unlikely), it's going to hold up the division.

He's done nothing wrong personally, it's just the system. He's just part of it. It's not a problem for him.
But, if demanding mandatories is what he should be doing, then he should have demanded Dubois v Parker be re-scheduled before facing Dubois for a second time. It looks like he jumped at a chance to fight Dubois again, to regain a title he signed happily away just a year earlier when he took on Fury's twice instead of facing a mandatory last year too.
In fact, the only mandatory challenger he ever faced was Dubois the first time, who was one of the least deserving at that time. Yes, four mandatories is a joke, and at the rate of facing one mandatory every five years, it would need a 20 year reign to satisfy four organizations.

 

But you don't get to decide if they are right or wrong. A lot of people enjoyed these rematches, and Usyk certain did more to boost his legacy than if he has fought Joyce, Zhang, Hrgovic, or any of these other guys that flamed out because they weren't that good.

If he does the right thing and fights the new uber-mando in March-April--and I believe that he will--he will have had a spotless career.

 

I'm entitled to an opinion as much as anyone.

A lot of people enjoyed the rematches, great. That's fine too. I don't take boxing seriously as a sport, but since we pretend it is at times and discuss who should fight who, etc. it's okay to express views of how it could work better. I don't it doesn't really matter.

A lot of people since 2020 would have enjoyed a 2 or 3 fight Joshua v Fury series, and Joshua v Wilder triology, maybe they would have enjoyed Joshua v Ruiz 3. And in that case, Usyk could have been avoided too. Because let's face it, he didn't do anything much at heavyweight before he got his shot at Joshua anyway, so . If Usyk had been frozen out in 2021-25, for AJ-Fury-Wilder to continue, you'd probably be in the position of justifying that too. Of course, it is only boxing, it's a show business. None of actually matters. I mean, people are just as likely to watch Jake Paul v Mike Tyson or whatever, and apparently enjoy the whole circus.

 

You entitled to your opinion, its just ridiculous. The rematches did a lot of business from satisfied fans, and did nothing but enhance his legacy.

You don't like them...duly noted.

 

Parker vs Wardley winner to face Usyk next, unless the winner is Parker, of course, in which case he will be made to fight Itauma in one last eliminator.

 

I think @PrimoGT is right. With fighters who fight about once a year a contractual rematch for a belt is ridiculous and the logical consequence is actually that boxing does not function as a sport should but like entertainment business and when we are talking who should fight whom we actually argue in a dream land far from reality.

It is one more of the ways to keep the popular fighters in spotlight position. You can only demand contractual rematches if you're joshua or fury or whoever. It does not depend on actual quality. Parker wouldn't get that. Kabayel wouldn't get that. And god forbid Zhang somehow would have gotten the belts... Is this based on fighters strengths now? Is this how a sport should work?

Bad enough that positioning fighters in the rankings is corrupt (itauma btw - what has he done to be so high up - even if I actually rate him pretty highly, it is not based on achievements).

As it is, the boxing business dangles this carot in front of the less popular fighters: climb up the rankings and the popular fighter on top has to fight you or you get the belt and become popular yourself and get good fights. If that doesn't work, the way to the top is barred.

If wardley wins against parker (unlikely) has he done more to deserve a usyk fight than kabayel? (Btw the comment 'wardley is not world level' might be true from a eye test perspective and maybe there are a few lesser known fighters who would outbox him, but based on achievements he is in the top ten as weird as it is).

Last point: why is there little interest in fighting kabayel from the usyk and promotional side? Kabayel and his team won't slander usyk and make headlines left and right and have a million english followers. They will sit quietly and politely beside him and compliment him and how will usyk be the one to collect interest?

To a lesser degree that goes for parker, too.

So back to the point: boxing is a business and it is annoying. Have a lot of instagram followers like ryan garcia or shout a Lot of bs every day like fury (from that perspective you could almost assume he was mentally healthy and just does it for business reasons) otherwise you don't get the big fights or a title for that matter. Maybe befriend a sheik or king or druglord?

Parker is the clear favorite in this fight.

 

The most annoying thing is when fight fans defend these practices. Popularity is nice but often we miss out because of this system. It resembles wwe. Look how manufactured canelos legacy is. Imagine how many greater fights we might have had when every fighter just fights the other fighters on their level without 'marinating' fights or waiting for title shots.

Popular figures from popular countries are built up and then protected like hell because the investment starts to pay off. Usyk earns more in his last fight against dubois than in all the fights before joshua together (i assume). this is not meant as a criticism of usyk who hasn't done anything wrong in my eyes up to this point, but to show that the business system is ridiculous and the payoffs that lead promoters and fighters to steer a career a certain way are not at all aligned with what the fans actually want to see in hindsight.

What would you rather delete from humanity's memory:

A) Usyk vs dubois 2
B) All usyk fights before joshua 1

 

https://www.telecomasia.net/news/boxing/temporary-wbo-champion-parker-believes-usyk-is-avoiding-him/

Parker believes usyk is avoiding him

 

Am I misremembering here or did Usyk/Usyk's team throw out that they were looking into making the Dubois rematch just before Dubois was scheduled to fight Parker?

Because that would have definitely changed Dubois' desire and likelihood of fighting Parker.

And moving into the realm of conspiracy theory here but that could have been a purposeful strategy by Usyk's team to derail Dubois vs Parker. Otherwise why wouldn't they just say they want to fight the winner?

The Dubois pullout was dodgy and could have been the result of a handshake and a wink "you pull out of this fight and we'll give you the Usyk fight next" sort of thing.

 

Well , usyk wanted the undisputed fight and he wanted to win it .

So they wanted dubois and not parker as opponent in any case , and there was a risk dubois looses against parker - so they pulled dubois out without a new date to not risk anything .

Would dubois have lost to parker , usyk would have need to fight parker for undisputed !